Monday, November 10, 2008

Todd has been getting into the woodworking groove by doing a few small projects before pursuing our ultimate DIY holy grail: a new fireplace surround and mantel, flanked by bookshelves, at the end of the living room.

But before he goes whole hog on that, he whipped up a little thing this weekend. We have a short wall in our foyer that has a smoke detector, a doorbell, and a thermostat running right down the middle of the wall, making it hard to hang anything substantial that might pretty up the wall. And it's only the first thing people see when they come in the house, so it was obviously a perfect place for the builder to put all the ugly stuff!

I forgot about the huge vent underneath, another attractive touch.

I bought the red shelf on the right at the Newport News Fall Festival a month or so ago, but before then that space was usually bare. I've never really been able to figure out how to dress up our foyer walls, the space is so small and cramped.

Here's the pretty thing that Todd made:

Since we can't really cover the smoke detector for safety reasons, and if we covered the thermostat, it would have to be with a basket or something easily taken off for temperature fiddling, covering the doorbell was the only option.

Here it is in place:

Now the rest of the wall needs to be balanced...I'm thinking maybe a couple more small shelves and some pictures. I need to dig through my stash and see what I have. But isn't it a pretty way to disguise something so bland and boring?

Do you think it I put something small on top of the doorbell shelf, it would interfere with the smoke detector? I'm thinking just some branches or berries in a small bowl, nothing big and solid. I'd love to camouflage that thing a little bit.

Anyway, I think Todd did a nice job. He's a handy person to have around!